“I was wondering when you were going to have one of them hack into the department’s system and get the full case file,” I said as Micah and I stood over Sy, watching his fingers race across the keyboard. The movements were so swift I couldn’t follow them even if I’d tried.
I found it funny that Sy, nor his twin, looked like the quintessential hackers or computer geeks. Instead of pale, thin, and lanky, those two were tall, tanned, and broad. Like they came straight off of someone’s football field instead of the computer lab. There weren’t any strange collector’s items like the 1990s troll dolls with the fluorescent hair around their offices.
“If you waited, you would’ve known I planned on doing so after speaking with the ME,” Micah retorted, giving me a stern look.
I stuck my tongue out at him, which turned into a smirk when he narrowed his eyes in that way that told me he would do some very naughty things to me if we were alone.
“Yeah, we checked last week, but the report wasn’t in the system by then,” Sy added, staring at his computer, none the wiser about the silent communication between Micah and me.
I shrugged with one shoulder and went back to looking at Sy’s screen. “Should’ve told me.”
“Okay, here it is. I’m printing it out now. Let’s see. The ME ruled the cause of death a suicide, which we already know. He found high levels of the drug your grandfather took for his back pain in his system. That, in combination with alcohol found in his system, supposedly proved lethal.”
“We know this already, Sy. We have the autopsy report. Get to the part that’s not in the autopsy report,” Micah insisted.
“Tough crowd today. Sheesh,” Sy droned, shaking his head, glancing over his shoulder. “All right, here are the photos that were taken at the scene.”
Gasping, I turned away from the screen when Sy clicked on the images, and the first thing to pop up was a picture of my grandfather’s lifeless body lying on the ground.
“Shit. Finish printing it out and bring it to my office.”
“No.” I shook my head, swallowing deeply and turning back around. “It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting to see it. I’m fine,” I insisted.
“Are you sure?” Micah asked, his hands wrapped around my arms while he peered down at me, his gaze questioning.
I nodded. “Hundred percent. I’m good.”
I could see him clench his teeth, likely uncertain, but he finally inclined his head. “Keep going,” he told Sy.
We spent another hour going through the case file. The evidence from the images seemed to match up with everything stated in the autopsy report. It felt staged.
“Whoever is behind this has some experience in law enforcement. They knew what bases to cover and what to place where to make it look like a suicide. Very few inconsistencies.”
“Except the note,” I said to Micah as we sat in his office.
He nodded. “There’s that. He fucked up there. Probably trying to make it look even more believable. That will be this person’s undoing.”
“So you think it’s one of the deputies in the department?”
“Likely.” His facial expression turned pensive as he stared out of the office’s window. “Could be more than one,” he added. “We need to figure out what motive anyone in the Harlington Sheriff’s Department would have to target your grandfather. So far, everything we checked out about your grandfather has come back clean. He led a simple life, was up to date on his bills and taxes, no gambling, or any other kind of debts. He had few friends, so he kept to himself.”
“I know all of this. It makes no sense.”
Micah agreed, dipping his head. “We need to approach this from the other angle.”
I lifted my gaze from the floor in front of me and wrinkled my forehead.
“The missing girl. They’re connected, somehow. If we find out what happened to her, hopefully, it’ll answer the questions about your grandfather.”
“You spoke to the reporter who wrote those articles on her, right?”
“Yeah, it led me in a couple of directions. I’ve been having Leona track down the foster mother Amy was living with at the time of her disappearance. She’s moved from this area out to west Texas.”
I lifted my brows.
“How far out west?”
“Far. It’s a six hour drive from here.”
